Have you ever wondered how to craft a story? What about for impact and effectiveness?
Stories provide a way for you to provide value to your audience and highlight your expertise.
Below are the tips I have shared with clients when crafting and creating an effective and impactful story: the formats, the ratio and the next steps.
The Format
There are my 3 super simple story formats I have created to easily craft a story.
FORMAT 1 – Problem, Solution, Benefit
This format is good for known problems or issues that exist. Often involves just a few items.
| FORMAT 1 Name | FORMAT 1 Description | |
| COMPONENT 1 | Problem | Describe the problem or issue |
| COMPONENT 2 | Solution | Describe the steps, the reasons to resolve the issue |
| COMPONENT 3 | Benefit | Share the benefits the solution provided |
FORMAT 2 – Before, Gap, After
This approach is good for describing a situation or scenario before and after. Often involves multiple items.
| FORMAT 2 Name | FORMAT 2 Description | |
| COMPONENT 1 | Before | Describe the scenario before the situation was changed |
| COMPONENT 2 | Gap | Describe the gaps, or items that were fixed, plugged, resolved to get to the after state |
| COMPONENT 3 | After | Share the benefits of the “after” |
FORMAT 3 – Event, Approach, Lesson Learned
This format is good for when an unplanned event occurs.
| FORMAT 3 Name | FORMAT 3 Description | |
| COMPONENT 1 | Event | Describe the event and why it happened |
| COMPONENT 2 | Approach | Describe the approach, your methodology or system to fix it |
| COMPONENT 3 | Lessons Learned | Share the lessons learned after the approach was applied |
The Ratio
The amount of time you have to tell the story will impact how much you spend on each of the components of the story formats.
What Is The Ratio?
I have created a ratio to use as a guideline, it is 20:40:40.
That means that 20% of time is spent on component 1, 40% of time is spent on component 2, and 40% of time is spent on component 3.
| % | |
| COMPONENT 1 | 20 |
| COMPONENT 2 | 40 |
| COMPONENT 3 | 40 |
How Do You Use The Ratio?
The ratios represent the percentage of time to commit for each component.
For example, the Components for Format 1 (Problem, Solution, Benefit) formula for a 2, 10 or 30 minutes. The amount of time for each component would break down as follows:
| 2 MINUTE TIME | 10 MINUTE TIME | 30 MINUTE TIME | |
| PROBLEM | 24 seconds | 2 minutes | 6 minutes |
| SOLUTION | 48 seconds | 6 minutes | 12 minutes |
| BENEFIT | 48 seconds | 6 minutes | 12 minutes |
The Next Steps In Crafting A Story
Sometimes called the “Call To Action” or CTA. This is the approach and often the last line of the story.
It is sometimes the “feeling” or experience you want them to have.
What do you want your audience to think, feel or do as a result of hearing your story?
They may think back on their life, think they are on the right track, think they need to get healthy.
They may feel motivated, happy or hopeful.
They may want to call you, talk to a friend or volunteer for a cause.